Keep Bitching and Whining and Reclaim the Culture

I read with interest Roger Simon’s post at PJMtelling conservatives and libertarians to quit bitching and whining about the culture:

People on the right spend a great deal of time and energy excoriating Hollywood, Broadway, and the music industry. Entertainment has become the province of the Left and is hugely biased.

True enough — but it’s been that way for some time. And with all the complaining by conservatives and libertarian-types it may even have gotten worse in recent years. Certainly, it hasn’t gotten better. Whining, it must be admitted, hasn’t helped…..

So my point is quite simple. Quit bitching and start doing.

Sean Penn and Oliver Stone are going to do what they are going to do. Conservatives and libertarians have to do the same thing — but better.

Let me tell you a little story about myself. When I was doing my dissertation for my PhD, my adviser was a woman who loved to manipulate and try to intimidate grad students. Everyone knew it, yet no one would stand up to her because they were afraid of what she would do to them and their career. She was a difficult person and everyone knew it. One day, I went to meet with her about my dissertation. She professed herself a “feminist” yet told me that I would have to do a better job than any man in our department to get through. Apparently, she was going to see to that. Without showing any emotion, I looked at her and stated in a low voice, “I will do no better job than any PhD student ever did that got out of here.” She backed down and after that, rarely gave me any trouble. Why? Because I didn’t buy into her notion that I had to be better than everyone else. I didn’t put up with her abuse and let her intimidate me.

I am asking the same of you. No, we don’t have to accept the bias and the intimidation that goes along with being on the right. Yes, keep whining and bitching and at the same time, as Mr.Simon says, do stuff that makes the culture better for us as conservatives. Don’t play into the notion that you have to be better to win. You just have to play and that means do the best you can, fight back when you see things are unfair and help your fellow conservative and libertarians to travel through this culture with as little damage as possible. Keep at it, keep fighting and don’t let others tell you that you have to be the best to be right. Just be good enough.

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1.
TMG

I do, but it’s like playing whack-a-mole at best.

Since Leftist arguments are primarily emotional, they pop up again and again regardless of how reasonable counterarguments are. Often in the same people.

For example, I have painstakingly spent years explaining to a couple of my Leftist friends how big government = corporate cronyism, and they even agree with me on many things. But then a couple months later they go back to emoting about “evil corporate GOP” and”FORWARD!!!”

Liberals, progressives, leftists, or whatever you want to call them, are at the hearts cowards. Stand up to them and they will back down, every time. Their entire agenda is based on shame and blame, intimidation. If you simply ignore them and let them know that you will not be intimidated, they shrink away.

Mr. Simon’s point is that whining and complaining about liberals, progressives, leftists, whatever, only empowers them. Their aim is to annoy, insult and intimidate you. Once they know they’re doing that, it only motivates them to do it more.

The problem that the right, conservatives and libertarians, have is that they lack the organization the left has. The left is extremely mono-ideological, that is to say they do not allow any dissension among their ranks or against their agenda. The right is enormously diverse, meaning we welcome open discussion and debate. We look for a solution to problems, not a reason to cast aspersions.

So, it’s sort of an immovable object against an irrestible force kind of thing. Ignore the immovable object, which is statism, and the irresistible force, which is freedom, will win. But it has to be effectively organized first.

Exactly. If you’re an incredibly talented conservative screenwriter in Iowa, where do you go to break through? It’s hard enough to make it in any of the arts as a lefty because so many people want to be artists. If it becomes known you’re a conservative it’s doubly hard.

We should turn that around, perhaps using the Friends of Abe or some such group as a springboard. We need those few conservatives who do have cultural influence to use that influence to try to seek out and develop new talent, perhaps giving conservative artists a leg up over their competition (or at least some sort of counter to all the strikes against them).

There may be something in the works, but I haven’t seen it. I’m not focusing on it now, but I’ve had tons of ideas for short videos that I wrote, but since I’ve no resources, directing, or editiing ability, none of them got made. Why isn’t there a way for a conservative writer to hook up with others who could help him develop his ideas?

Excellent Helen. Conservatives don’t do well because they’d never make “When Harry Met Sally”. They’re too busy working on the sprawling biopic “When Hayek Met von Mises” and want the left to bankroll it.

Great post, Doc. Why is it that the conservative message keeps getting lost when the best selling stories and entertainment out there always, ALWAYS has a conservative story line or message? Possibly, because it is co-opted by the liberal artists and companies that make the darn things.

It would take a leader from one of the readers to register a company, a non-profit. The company could fund filmakers to make films that don’t always have the white Christian male as the villian. There should be a way to raise money through donations or web based investments until you can make a profit. I am afraid that you may need to tackle the distribution networks also.

The lefties are still trying to figure out why Forrest Gump was a huge success. Conservative themes in movies could be successful but they aren’t made. Watch “Casablanca” again and see why it has never grown old. Bogart was a modern man in his cynicism but he was capable of a greater cause. Today’s heros, with a few exceptions like Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” and “Robin Hood” and a very few others, are unidimensional. There is nothing there once the cynicism gets old.

Bitching can be useful. We had a guy in our platoon in basic training who couldn’t poop. He was so uptight that nothing happened. We sat him down and told him to let his feelings out. Tell us what was bothering him. It was OK. It cured his constipation but he was the worst a-hole all through the rest of basic.

I used to work in academe and I wish that I could tell you that it wasn’t wearing, tiresome and just a little disillusioning to hear liberals and other assorted leftists assume that everyone in the room shared their beliefs or, at least, that they would not be seriously challenged in their insulated cocoon. Although I didn’t look for pointless battles, I came to the conclusion that I had to just go ahead and let people know that I might not agree with them and that when they made generalizations about conservatives, they were speaking about me. As you say, Dr. H, maybe that was good enough. You just deal with the ones who are vitriolic and you might present your point of view to the ones who’ll listen but there’s not much you can do about the isolation that you begin to sense. It sort of seemed like naughty children on the playground. “We can’t have fun with him. He doesn’t like the same cool stuff we do.” I kind of enjoyed certain aspects of the academic world but when I got a chance to leave, I weighed the factors and I left. Would it have made the world better if I had stayed in this inhospitable environment? I certainly wasn’t driven out but the uniformity of thought I encountered did play some part in my thinking. On the other hand, maybe I just didn’t like the job well enough to stick around. This last point seems to be the difference between my example and Martel’s comment above. I hope that his screenwriter can find his way, whatever that might be.

I think the problem is deeper than you are letting on. Roger L. Simon quoted Andrew Breitbart as saying, “Politics is downstream of culture.” But I would also say that culture is downstream of religion and quasi-religion. The old-fashioned WASP Christianity has gone out of fashion among the intelligentsia, and Progressivism has been sucked into the resulting vaccuum.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think old-fashioned theistic Christianity (the kind that taught that envy is a sin, not the Social Gospel kind) is coming back among the educated folk. What we need is a new religion, and it needs to be one that recovering Marxists will find attractive. In particular, a satisfying quasi-religion needs scapegoats and bogiemen. I think Kurt Vonnegut was on to something in _Cat’s Cradle_ with The Army of Mars.

My own modest proposal along these lines is called, “The Market for Sanctimony, or why we need Yet Another Space Alien Cult”.

Keep at it, keep fighting and don’t let others tell you that you have to be the best to be right. Just be good enough.

Some of the best advice you can give anyone about anything. Perfectionism is a trap that keeps you from performing at the highest level. Sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not. How many battles did Wathington lose? More than he won. How many elections did Lincoln lose? More than he won. Keep fighting.

I think the best way to be heard is to be loud and proud. That’s why people like Chris Christie, Newt, Herman Cain, Trump, etc, are so popular, and become so quickly. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say, is what everyone is hungry for. It also gets them onto the LSM, but because they say what they mean, it is near impossible for them to spin it. Even if they do try, their outspoken-ness makes them able to just say it again, straight forward and to the point, and meaning it. No pussyfooting around, no changing position(s), to giving in..or if they do they say it like it is as to why, etc. Yup, loud, proud, and the TRUTH, that’s what we are sorely lacking.

You GO, Dr. Helen!
We accomplished women who do NOT consider ourselves Feminists look up to you as a role model!
I am a huge fan, and loved this story!
(I had negative stories from Engineeing school, mostly from male teachers, but some amazing supportive male teachers there too!
It was all part of forming “who I am” today…